


Morning on the other side of The Sun

by madnessfk



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 15:55:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2275704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madnessfk/pseuds/madnessfk





	Morning on the other side of The Sun

It was about 8 a.m. by the local time, which was basically a time of D.C. and pretty much didn`t make any sense here, but Ken couldn`t help himself and kept counting — somehow, he felt better knowing what hour it is. It really helped with a schedule. 

With a huge effort, he managed to get out of warm, soft bed, and went to the kitchen, feeling coldness of a metal floor with his bare feet. Immediately automized up to the smallest action smart mechanisms woke up as well, as fast as sensors caught Ken`s presence in the room, and air, cool and cleared with hundreds and hundreds of filters, filled with delicious smell of frying bacon and fresh coffee. 

“Good morning, officer Peithon,” — welcomed him calm, neutral-friendly voice of an on-board computer. It wasn`t actually a morning, they both knew it, but Ken asked the computer to say so.

“Hello, Stuart,” — he greeted, spreading butter on a crispy toast. — “How`s the weather?”

“Scanning,” — Stuart announced and fell silent for a few moment, which felt like eternity. A long tree years ago, when Ken just arrived here, every time he asked this simple question and every time Stuart kept silent after it — just like today — his heart stopped beating in expectation, in horror of hearing about sand storm moving closer to the base, or acid rain, or earthquake, or whatever disaster was possible in this place. 

Every time his heart stopped, until the day when Stuart actually warned him about hurricane wind. Ken almost died from fear, even though he understood with his mind, that he must be prepared for any troubles, for any mysteries hiding in the caves of those ancient mountains. He spent that day monitoring data and checking safety protocols. Still, ceiling didn’t fell, floor didn’t cracked, and, even though Ken couldn’t sleep that night, by the morning he accepted the idea of possible horrible death waiting for him above the next corner. After all, it`s better to celebrate every single day you managed to survive, than glooming your mind with dreary thoughts. 

“The external environment has been scanned,” — Stuart said, — “Weather anomalies have not been found. Wind is mild. Environment is acceptable for work”.  
Kenneth smiled slightly. Seems like he has more chances not to die, after all. At least for today.

After finishing his breakfast and taking a quick shower, Ken went to the console room. Through the thick glass, he could see pale-blue sandy surface of Thalia. Somewhere, far-far away, where purplish, forever restless sea was frozen, northern lights glowed faintly. 

(“Negative, officer Paithon,” — corrected him Stuart once. —“As far as we know, there is no such thing as “Northern lights” on this planet”).

Ken sat in front of computer, switching on the communication channel — if magnet field won`t be too bad today, he might be able to finally send a message to Earth.

“It`s researching base Franz Ferdinand speaking,” — he said in microphone with almost sincere enthusiasm, — “reporting the situation: full analysis of Career G proved my theory about its` man-made origin. It seems like we were right about that civilization. I`m sure I`m getting closer to the underground city, but it`s hard to tell yet, it needs more research. Yesterday I discovered another entrance nearby section R-9. I`m going to investigate it, so I need more equipment, class “Mole”, — for a few seconds Ken kept silent, biting his lips. This whole situation…it started to worry him. — “Please answer as soon as you can. Over.”

Ken switched off and sighed heavily. He had a lot of work to do, so he went to elevator to the upper levels. He was already gone, when Stuart announced in his always-imperturbable tone:

“Attention. One message has been received.”

As the message started to play, scratching sound of engines and noise of human voices and racket and roars and whirrs and burrs filled the room, almost ready to break through the walls, through the glass, through the metal, flooding the base, wrecking stones and stirring pale sand into mud. It was barely possible to understand the words, the voice, trying to outcry all that horrible growl. 

“Ken! Ken, it`s Lidia! I`m so sorry, Ken, I`m so so sorry, but no one`s coming for you. The Seal of Edelweiss will detonate in a moment. We screwed up. Ken…we`ll all be dead when you`ll receive this, Earth will be—“

“End of the massage.”

All the noises disappeared as suddenly as they started. For a very long time it was absolutely silent, and somewhere deep inside of the A.I. a proses of analysis went on, until, finally, the computer found the best decision. 

“Attention. It is not recommended for personal to listen this massage. Reason: v-log from 20.09.2063: “…it`s better to celebrate every single day he managed to survive, than glooming your mind with dreary thoughts”. Massage deleted. Approximate time of personal`s death is three month seventeen days.

I`m so sorry, Ken”.


End file.
